This recording of the "Twilight of the Gods" ("Götterdämmerung") forms the fourth and final part of Wagner's masterpiece, his epic "Ring" Cycle. The Stuttgart Opera gave it a revolutionary treatment in a staging by Peter Konwitschny, a celebrated interpreter of Wagner’s operas. He chooses to ignore the wider myth-bound associations of the work and concentrates on the immediate motivations, emotions and obsessions of the characters. Gone are the gods awaiting nightfall in their imposing hall; the action instead is set on a simple wooden stage of a touring theatre company. The final opera of the Ring cycle tells the story of how the ring and its curse bring the downfall of the Gods and a tragic end to the love of Siegfried and Brünnhilde. As Brünnhilde's death becomes an act of redemption for the gods and for all living creatures, a new dawn of hope is ushered in. "It is verly likely that in the near future the Stuttgart Ring conceived by Klaus Zehelein will be remembered as a Wagnerian watershed as much as Wieland Wagner's in the 1950s." (Opera Magazine)